An Introduction to International Relations

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the contemporary political debates surrounding globalisation. It illustrates the main features of protests against the social consequences of a globalised economy, and it identifies some of the key political issues that scholars and students of International Relations (IR) must face when addressing the promotion of justice and effective governance within a more densely connected world.

Introduced in the mid-1990s, the term ‘globalisation’ has entered common usage and become a central issue in public debates in most countries around the world. Globalisation has come to be associated with the controversial social outcomes that have stemmed from an increasingly integrated global economy, and the resulting public disquiet and controversy around the world, particularly as symbolised by the 1999 protests in Seattle against the World Trade Organization (WTO). This controversy has continued in the form of more recent protests in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008–09. Globalisation has also become an important – although essentially contested – concept within the field of IR and other social science disciplines. It is therefore essential to understand what globalisation means.

Understanding globalisation

Globalisation is a messy term that encompasses a wide variety of human activity. As you may be aware, there are trade statistics and other economic facts that suggest the world is becoming increasingly globally integrated (Held and McGrew 2007). Nevertheless, facts do not tell the whole story. Consequently, in an effort to systematise the examination of globalisation, a variety of scholars have advanced arguments about what globalisation means. The seminal globalisation work, Global Transformations, offers a systematic study of the history and nature of globalisation and suggests three explanations for contemporary global integration (Held et al. 1999) (see Box 28.1). The first is hyperglobalisation, a position held by liberals like Kenichi Ohmae (1995), who claims that globalisation represents a recent and near-complete triumph of liberal values and global markets that is tightly integrating states and people around the world. Such researchers argue that globalisation is a significant force for human progress.